The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has mandated that companies bidding for a WiMax (ie. high speed wireless broadband access) licence must have 51% black ownership.

Industry feedback has been that existing companies able to provide such a service don’t have this much black ownership, while eligible black owned companies lacked the financial muscle to do so.

Companies affected by this new ICASA ruling who might wish to launch WiMax include MTN, MWeb, Internet Solutions, Altech and Verizon.